Managing Sustainability

Managing Sustainability
First Steps to First Class

John Friedman
Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class
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 Abstract
Sustainability professionals or business strategists who are seeking to in-
tegrate effective programs that match corporate strategy with the purpose
and values-driven initiatives that engage employees, build customer loy-
alty, and improve license to operate will benefit from the author’s more
than 30 years’ experience in corporate communications, business, and
corporate sustainability.
Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class provides a compelling
case, real-world examples, and the tools to follow a proven strategy for
aligning sustainability efforts with existing organizational priorities. This
strategy has taken companies from initial conception to the top of the
DJSI/RobecoSAM and MSCI sustainability rankings in three very differ-
ent business sectors: construction, materials, food services and ­facilities
management, and energy. Using examples from these and other leading
companies, readers will understand the importance of creating—and
more importantly how to build—programs that drive results and enhance
reputation.
Benefits include enabling companies to attract, hire, retain, and
(most importantly) fully engage the best talent, seize the innovation high
ground with new and premium products and services, provide access to
an ever-increasing pool of socially responsible investment capital, imple-
ment “best practices,” earn social license to operate, reduce compliance
and regulatory costs, and more.
The methodology described includes the latest trend (and increasing
expectation) to go beyond the organization’s own “footprint” to integrate
their values into their supply chains and build employee and customer
loyalty by empowering these essential stakeholders to live their shared
values.

Keywords
business strategy; strategic alignment; sustainability; corporate respon-
sibility; best practices; organizational excellence; results; reputation;
leadership; management; employee engagement; environment; social;
governance; ESG; sustainable development goals, SDGs
 Contents
Foreword ...............................................................................................ix

Chapter 1 Introduction......................................................................1
Chapter 2 Integrating Sustainability into the Business........................7
Chapter 3 Five Keys to Integrate Sustainability into the Business......37
Chapter 4 Creating a Leading Program.............................................59
Chapter 5 How Sustainability Is Changing Traditional
Functions of Business.......................................................79
Chapter 6 What’s Next?..................................................................101

Key Resources.......................................................................................115
About the Author.................................................................................119
Index..................................................................................................121
 Foreword
Our home, planet Earth, is roughly four and a half billion years old.
When we, as human beings, think about our lives, our work, our legacy,
and those who will come after us, we like to imagine that this world
will go on forever. We hope that an infinite number of generations will
continue to come along and enjoy the same beauty, the same prosperity,
and the same expectations of a better future brimming with wonderful
possibilities.
That vision is at the heart of sustainability.
In this book, Managing Sustainability: First Steps to First Class, author
John Friedman examines the role of business in forging such a world.
A practitioner of the aspiring art of “corporate social responsibility,”
Friedman takes a no-nonsense look at the several meanings of sustain-
ability in the commercial sector. After all, making money, growing a cus-
tomer base, and, at the heart of it all, staying in business are the very core
of sustainability in the business world.
However, in a larger sense, people today believe that the vision of a
sustainable future includes them. It is an expectation of societies around
the world, written into law by governments everywhere. Business is duty
bound to be a proper steward of social fairness, equal opportunity, and
environmental responsibility. We expect our executives to be examples of
moral rectitude. Just ask any (former) higher-up out of work for reasons
of personal conduct, especially in the #MeToo era.
What the author addresses so articulately in this book is the necessary
next step that follows from corporate social responsibility, that is, creating
shared value.
Those of us who teach business in the 21st century tell our students
that—yes—it is your imperative to make money and stay in business. But
it is also an imperative to preserve and enhance the world from which you
draw your wealth.
x FOREWORD

That obligation, this new “sustainability,” includes principles of fair-

ness, expanded opportunity for striving peoples fighting obstacles of dis-
advantage of all kinds, and, so importantly, preserving and raising the
quality of our home, planet Earth.

Louise L. Schiavone
Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School
Baltimore, MD
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Corporate Sustainability
For many people the concept of “sustainability”—meeting the needs
of this generation while safeguarding those of generations to come—is
synonymous with environmental protection and stewardship. However,
those working in the space focus on three main pillars: economic, envi-
ronmental, and social. This is what starts to separate an effort to balance
or meet all three needs with “environmentalism.”
For businesses, the term “corporate sustainability” is broken into three
related but slightly different categories: environment, social, and gover-
nance (ESG)—the concept being that much of what a business does eco-
nomically has to be done ethically, transparently, and with proper checks
and balances in place. For the purposes of this book, the term “sustain-
ability” relies on the later definition because it is also focused on the need
for the business to sustain, as well as the environment and the societies/
communities in which it operates.
One need only to look back a decade to the Great Recession and the
collapse of the global housing market to see an example of unsustainable
economic business practices. There were many reasons for the collapse,
which was primarily caused by a rise in subprime mortgage lending (selling
housing loans to people with poor credit) and a massive increase in hous-
ing prices. Riding the wave up were financial institutions, regulators, credit
agencies, and consumers (who did not want to miss out on easy credit and
often did not understand the terms of the loans that they were being sold)
as well as those who took advantage of the “easy money” to be made by buy-
ing and selling (flipping) houses while prices spiraled upward.
In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered
that Volkswagen had been cheating in emissions tests by intentionally
2 MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY

programming some of its vehicles to activate their emissions controls only

during emissions testing, but to release up to 40 times the legal limits
during real-world driving. The EPA determined that the cheating affected
about 500,000 cars in America and 11 million worldwide. Regulators in
multiple countries began to investigate the company and its stock price
fell in value by a third in the days immediately after the news. Volkswagen
Group CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned. Volkswagen announced
plans in April 2016 to spend €16.2 billion (US$18.32 billion) to refit
the affected vehicles as part of a recall campaign. In 2017, Volkswagen
pleaded guilty to criminal charges and the company was ordered to pay a
$2.8 billion criminal fine.
Perhaps the most tragic recent example of how the pillars interact was
on April 24, 2013, when the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed,
killing more than a thousand underpaid garment workers producing cloth-
ing for fast fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara. Workers’ complaints
about the building security had been ignored on multiple occasions, and
the day before the tragedy, cracks were discovered on the lower floors of the
building, but the management decided to ignore the warnings.

Why One Needs the Three Pillars

Sustainability is distinct in that it works to find solutions that balance (or
meet) the three “pillars.” Making decisions that overbalance one (i.e., eco-
nomic) can all too easily sacrifice the others. Focusing purely on even the
most idealistic goals can lead to decisions that are grounded more in emo-
tion than on facts. The imperative to address climate change is real, but
focusing only on the promise of “renewable electricity,” as an example, can
lead to some well-intended efforts with unintended consequences. The US
Energy Information Agency (EIA) projects strong growth for wind and
solar power in the United States, so that the total share of U.S. electricity
generation produced by all renewables other than hydropower will increase
from 10 percent of total generation in 2018 to 13 percent in 2020.1

1
US EIA. 2019. “EIA Forecasts Renewables Will Be Fastest Growing Source of
­lectricity Generation.” https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38053,
E
(accessed October 12, 2019).
 Introduction 3

What this means is that fossil fuels will still provide most of the elec-
tricity generated in the United States. Coal and natural gas combined
provided 63 percent of electricity generation in 2018 and EIA forecasts
that they will provide 61 percent in 2020.
In fact, most of the greenhouse gas reductions in the United States
have been due to the shift of U.S. electricity away from coal toward natu-
ral gas, which has grown faster than renewables. The EIA forecasts that
this trend will continue, meaning that efforts to “keep it in the ground”
run into the stark reality that the U.S. economy and the health and
well-being of millions of people rely on doing the exact opposite and will
for decades to come, absent major technological breakthroughs in both
renewable generation and storage.
In October 2019, wildfires forced Pacific Gas & Electric to shut down
the electricity to millions of Californians for several days. Those without
backup power (i.e., generators) were cut off. Those with electric vehicles
were faced with the possibility that they might not be able to leave the
affected areas.

Is Capitalism Inherently Unsustainable?

Capitalism is an economic model, one that allows people the opportu-
nity to generate and retain one’s own wealth. Around the world capital-
ism offers a development model that works at improving quality of life
(measured by longevity, health, financial prosperity). We must face two
sobering realities: first, we haven’t figured out how to do that without sac-
rificing our planet (the environmental pillar) in the process, and secondly,
that progress has not been universal or equitably distributed.
The idea of sustainability is based on a simple concept—that which
can endure and last. Profits alone are not sustainable.
Simply put, when one compares the ecological footprint of coun-
tries with the human development index, it becomes obvious that we
have a development path that successfully takes countries and people out
of poverty, but it is at the expense of the planet. The lifestyles associ-
ated with development are massively resource consuming, using more
resources than are available. Based on the resources on Earth, and the
amount of consumption, the American lifestyle can be described as “five
4 MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY

planet living,” in Europe it is “three planet living” and in Saudi Arabia it

is “six planet living.”
This is not sustainable because we will eventually run out of resources
to continue to enjoy these benefits.
When it comes to the social pillar, we face an even more daunting
challenge. While we have generated a huge amount of financial wealth,
the gap between the richest and the poorest of us has not gotten better,
it has gotten worse. The rising tide is raising only some of the boats and
the others are being left further behind. That is not just morally “unfair”;
it also is politically and socially destabilizing. The Occupy movement
and the powerful “We are the 99 percent” message have very effectively
demonized “excessive wealth” as selfishness run amok and reflects grow-
ing frustration and resentment that can be a precursor to violent (France
in 1789 and Russia in 1917) revolution. It can even lead to nonviolent
revolution such as in 1989 when social, economic, and political forces in
the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany) led to the fall
of the Berlin Wall and German reunification and the dissolution of the
GDR. There is some evidence that the current civil war in Syria may have
been caused (or made worse) by an environmental crisis (drought) in the
southern portion of the country, when those facing starvation fled to the
cities to seek jobs and relief (social) and the government was unable (or
unwilling) to help (a failure of governance).2
It would be too easy, and rash, to simply blame “capitalism” for these ills.
One need only look at the environmental impacts of other economic mod-
els. The GDR was widely known as the “most polluted nation” in Europe3
(hardly an advertisement for socialism). The lower standards for the same
quality of life indicators (longevity, health, and well-being) demonstrated the
failings of Soviet Communism (once, of course, the truth became known).4

2
JSTOR Daily. 2019. “Climate Change and Syria’s Civil War.” https://daily.jstor.org/
climate-change-and-syrias-civil-war/, (accessed October 12, 2019).
3
Christian Science Monitor. 1984. “East Germany Disputes Its Status as the Most
Polluted Country in Europe.” https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/1005/100538.html,
(accessed October 12, 2019).
4
Chicago Tribune. 1990. “Poverty, Hunger and Other Evils of Communism.” https://
www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-01-25-9001070410-story.html,
­(accessed October 12, 2019).
 Introduction 5

The concept of fiscal responsibility and responsible management is

an integral element within any corporate sustainability program. From
the boardrooms of Enron to the Deepwater Horizon crew members who
recognized the dangers of continuing to drill but were ignored, no effort
of corporate accountability can succeed without individuals accepting
responsibility for their own actions and behaviors and being empowered
to act on those values.
Business sustainability therefore will require buy-in by management
as well as employees, based on the mutual understanding that when busi-
nesses that are respectful of the environment and universally advancing
of the human condition are also profitable, it creates a virtuous cycle, one
in which the benefits outweigh the costs of that business. Management
must also understand the risks associated with short-term thinking as well
as engaging in practices that they must keep hidden to remain successful.
Fortunately, as we shall explore further, these trends are converging at
the same time.

Discussion Questions

1. The author cites examples of failures to illustrate the interdependence

of environmental, social, and governance failures. Can you think of
any examples where that balance has been successfully achieved?
2. Can you think of other examples when social or economic crises have
led to political destabilization?
3. Is capitalism inherently unsustainable? Is it possible to take the “best”
elements of capitalism, socialism and communism to define a “new”
economic model? What would such a model look like?
 Index
Absolute targets, 49
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, 33
Actions–Influence–Expertise, 60, 72
Amazon, 104
American consumerism, 15
American lifestyle, 3–4
Asbury Senior Living, 94–95
Attracting employees, 81–86
Best practices, 8, 41, 49
Bigger picture, 83
Black Friday, 89
Black market, 70
BNP Paribas Asset Management, 32
Brand police, 23
Bruce Wayne/Batman paradox, 43
Bubbles, 90
Business agenda, 66
Business model globalization,
101–112
Business Roundtable statement, 18
Business strategy, 7, 105
The Business Sustainability
Handbook, 55
The Butterfly Effect, 13
Buy and hold, 90
C-suite, 47
Capitalism, 3–5
Carbon War Room, 25–26
Chick-fil-A’s policy, 89
Clients/customers, 76
Climate change, 35–36, 86
Climate strike, 104
Collaborative cocreation, 97–99
Community, 68–77
benefits to, 53–54
Cone Communications’ Millennial
Employee Engagement
Study, 81
Conflict minerals, 68
Consumers value, 70
Core value, 15
Corporate responsibility, 8, 37, 40,
44, 79, 82, 108, 110, 112
Corporate structures, 110–111
Corporate sustainability, 1–2
Cost, 19, 85
Cultural strategic imperative, 40
Customers, 59, 68–77, 80,
87–90, 109
benefits to, 52–53
Day-to-day reality, 41–42
Digital media, 55
Earth Day, 52
Earth Overshoot Day, 64
Easy money, 1
Eco-Coach’s Anca Novacovici, 108
Economic bubbles, 29
Economic invasions, 107
EIA. See US Energy Information
Agency (EIA)
Employee activism, 103–105
Employee engagement, 22–24, 45
Employee Network Groups, 45
Empower Employees, 42–46
EnergyStar, 70–71
Engage employees, 42–46, 81–86
Engagement, 92–97
Environment, 1, 5, 16, 35, 37, 62,
90, 112, 113
Environment, social, and governance
(ESG), 1, 33, 36
Environmental deficit, 64
Environmental impacts, 68, 103
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), 1–2, 27
Environmental savings (CO2e), 85
EPA. See Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
ESG. See Environment, social, and
governance (ESG)
122 INDEX
Excessive wealth, 4
Expenses, 19
External stakeholders, 47, 48, 55, 62
Farmers’ organizations, 20
Fast buck, 29, 111
Fast food company, 95–96
Fat cat salaries, 32
Feel good, 22
Firms, 32
GDR. See German Democratic
Republic (GDR)
Gender wage gap, 14
General Electric, 25
General Motors EV1, 25
German Democratic Republic
(GDR), 4
Global Agenda Magazine, 28
Global Climate Strike, 104
Global economy, 68
Global Footprint Network, 64
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI),
66, 109
Globalization, 106
Good news, 102
Governance, 32, 36, 48, 65, 87, 108
Green Awards, 91
GRI. See Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI)
Healthcare Effectiveness Data and
Information Set (HEDIS), 83
HEDIS. See Healthcare Effectiveness
Data and Information Set
(HEDIS)
Hiring employees, 81–86
Home country, 101
Host country, 101
Implementing best practices, 8
Improving business processes, 8
Incentive programs, 111
Information technology, 101–102
Innovation high ground, 25–28
Insights, 89
Instant gratification, 111–112
Integrate sustainability, introduction
to, 37–38
Intensity targets, 49
Internal customers, 40
Internal stakeholders, 47, 48, 55, 57
International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN), 91
Internet media, 67
Investment capital, 29–36
IPO, 33
IUCN. See International Union for
Conservation of Nature
(IUCN)
Lafarge Construction Materials, 52
Lafarge’s partnership, 88
Leadership, 7, 11, 13, 29, 38, 40,
45, 49, 50, 59, 61, 68, 86,
97–98, 97–99, 107
Legal & General Investment
Management (LGIM), 32
Legal/risk management functions, 110
Leveraging employee engagement,
22–24
LGIM. See Legal & General
Investment Management
(LGIM)
Long-term approach, 90–92
Long-term relationship, 94
Management, 2, 5, 27, 29, 30, 44, 51,
65, 67, 85, 103–104
Market opportunity/advantage,
20–21
Material issues, 47
Materiality assessments, 47
Maximizing employee engagement,
22–24
Moral Capitalism, 15
The Myth of Shareholder Value, 85
National Committee for Quality
Assurance (NCQA), 83
Natural advantage, 28
NCQA. See National Committee for
Quality Assurance (NCQA)
A New Purpose for the
Corporation, 79
The New York Times Magazine, 9
Nontraditional social media, 92
NYSE Magazine’s, 19
 INDEX
123
OECD. See Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD)
Old habits, 72
On-Road Integrated Optimization
and Navigation
(ORION), 42
Operational excellence, 49
Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and
Development (OECD), 13
Organization’s strategy, 38–41, 51
ORION. See On-Road Integrated
Optimization and Navigation
(ORION)
Overshoot, 64
Partners, 45
Percentage targets, 50
Plan referenced targets, 50
Political agenda, 66
Primary purpose, 80
Products and services, 20
Professional management, 30
Programmatic targets, 50
Project management skills, 103
Public, power of, 68
Purpose, power of, 79–92
Quality of life, 3, 4, 85
Regulators, 59
Renewable electricity, 2
Reputation, 7, 12, 17, 23, 29, 32, 45,
47, 48–49, 55, 65, 79, 81,
89, 91, 96
Reputational capital, 18
Results, 46–54, 62, 71, 79–80, 83,
87, 89, 112
Retaining employees, 81–86
Return on investment, 8
Reward programs, 111
Rolling Laboratory, 62
Safety culture, 41
Saudi Arabian Oil Company, 33
School career days, 45
Science-based targets, 54
Shareholder activism, 32
Shareholders, 89, 109, 110
making money for, 80
subset of, 103
Shelton Group’s research, 87–89
Sin companies, 33
Social, 1, 4, 8–10, 12, 16, 17, 18,
19, 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 36,
40, 42, 48, 51, 53, 54, 61,
65–66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73,
83, 84, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93,
102, 106, 107, 108,
109, 113
Social license, 10–18
Social media, 23, 67
Social pillar, 16
Socially responsible investment (SRI),
29, 33, 35
Societal cost, 69
Societal good, 69
Sodexo, 71, 73, 74, 84, 85, 88
Soft news, 102
Soviet Communism, 4
SRI. See Socially responsible
investment (SRI)
Stakeholder activism, 102–103
Stakeholder engagement, 54–55
Stakeholders, 13–14, 30–32, 38,
47, 59
Strategic alignment, 57
Strategic imperative, 38, 57
Superior products, 70
Suppliers, 76
Suppliers’ behavior, 66
Sustainability, 108
actions, 61
business strategy, 7, 105
challenges, 108–112
efforts, 70
influence to, 65–68
introduction to, 7–10
Sustainability advocates, 35
Sustainability experts, 35
Sustainability programs, 77
Sustainability value drivers, 39
Sustainable Development Goals,
7–8, 87
Sustainable economy, 66, 105–108
Sustainable Living, 21
Swag, 44
124 INDEX
Sweet spot, 73
Synthetic gypsum, 27–28
THank You for Being Late, 106
Three pillars, 2–3
Time is money, 19
Time value of money (TVM), 52
True stakeholders, 90
TVM. See Time value of money
(TVM)
U.S. economy, 3
U.S. electricity, 2
US Energy Information Agency
(EIA), 2, 3
Value proposition, 49
Wal-Mart, 66, 109
WBCSD. See World Business Council
on Sustainable Development
(WBCSD)
Workers’ organizations, 20
World Business Council on
Sustainable Development
(WBCSD), 8
World Health Organization, 34
Zero sum, 107
 OTHER TITLES IN OUR ENVIRONMENTAL AND
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY FOR BUSINESS
ADVANTAGE COLLECTION
Robert Sroufe, Duquesne University, Editor
• ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems: What Managers Need to Know About Energy
and Business Administration by Johannes Kals
• Developing Sustainable Supply Chains to Drive Value, Volume I: Management Issues,
Insights, Concepts, and Tools—Foundations by Robert P. Sroufe
• Developing Sustainable Supply Chains to Drive Value, Volume II: Management Issues,
Insights, Concepts, and Tools—Implementation by Robert Sroufe
• Social Development Through Benevolent Business by Kaylan Sankar Mandal
• Climate Change Management: Special Topics in the Context of Asia
by Thi Thu Huong Ha
• Human Resource Management for Organizational Sustainability by Radha R. Sharma

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